


Sugar Crash!

by wallashoom



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Abandonment Issues, Anxious Huey Duck, Anxious Louie Duck, Blood, Brotherly Love, Bruises, Child Abandonment, Depression, Dewey Duck Needs a Hug, Drowning, Exploration, Family Issues, Gen, He just worries about his brothers, He's a Brave Boy, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Injury, Inspired by Music, It's a rock, Long One Shot, Louie Climbs The Statue of Liberty, Louie Duck Needs a Hug, Louie Duck-centric, Monsters, New York City, Nightmares, One Shot, Post-Episode: s02e21 Timephoon!, Self-Esteem Issues, This is DUMB, Trauma, Truth Serum, and it doesn't actually get used, except he's not, kind of, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:27:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29840814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wallashoom/pseuds/wallashoom
Summary: Feeling shitty in my bedDidn't take my fuckin' medsHyperpop up in my earsEverything just disappearedDon't wanna be someone elseJust don't wanna hate myselfI just don't wanna hate myself
Relationships: Della Duck & Louie Duck, Dewey Duck & Huey Duck & Louie Duck, Dewey Duck & Louie Duck, Lena (Disney: DuckTales)/Webby Vanderquack (mentioned)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49





	Sugar Crash!

**Author's Note:**

> Shhhh,,, yes it's long and yes it's dumb I just liked the song so I wrote this  
> [SugarCrash!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfV4ZDgumTQ)  
> 

“Wake up!”

Two eyes unfortunately pop open to see an eager duckling dressed in blue. 

“Wha-?”

“Come on, come on! We’re going on an adventure!”

“Right now?”

“Right now!”

Louie groaned. He didn’t feel like getting up. 

Suddenly, two hands were on his arms and aggressively shaking him. “Louie! Get up!”

“Dewey, calm down.” Another voice- Huey- spoke. “We’re leaving in an hour, not right this minute.”

Louie could practically hear his brother pout. “But this adventure is exciting! We’re going to get this really cool stone that can bring out the truth from someone!”

“Like a truth serum?” Louie mumbled, knowing he wasn’t going to be allowed to fall back into slumber. 

“I think so!” Dewey hopped off his younger brother’s bunk. “I am _so_ going to use that on Uncle Scrooge. I _know_ he left out some stuff in his tale about Uncle Donald and Mom and I intend to get the whole story.”

“I wouldn’t do that.” Huey advised. “We don’t know if that’s exactly how it works. It could end up hurting someone.”

“I mean… maybe. But when has that ever happened?”

“The giant key laser thing,” Louie spoke up, “the gem that trapped souls, the paralyzing knife, the transformation potion, the waffle maker, the poisonous perfume… I could go on.”

Dewey sheepishly laughed. “Okay, but that’s only a few dangerous things! They never actually hurt anyone!”

Louie couldn’t even find the energy to glare at his brother’s stupidity. It seemed he had forgotten that all the aforementioned artifacts had backfired on the green duckling. He was the one who got shot in the shoulder by a laser beam. He was the one whose back was horribly pressed against a grid that burnt his feathers and blistered his skin. He was the one whose soul was partially stuck in a gem and it took a week before someone finally noticed a part of him was basically missing. He was the one who breathed in the perfume because _someone_ \- cough, _Dewey_ \- randomly sprayed it in his face. He was the one who was struck on the knuckle by the knife that paralyzed his whole hand- _thank you, Webby_. Oh, and the transformation potion. He totally loved being a tiny and blind sea serpent that had to be guided through the water with a leash. Thanks.

And that wasn’t even half of all the things that constantly went wrong. Not even a third.

“Never hurt anyone?” Huey said, bewilderment dripping in his voice. “What about all the near death experiences we’ve all had?”

“ _But_ we never got hurt!”

Finally getting onto his feet, Louie yawned. “Speak for yourself.” He pulled his sleeve down, obscuring a dark bruise that the other two had unfortunately already seen.

“Woah, Louie, what is that?” Dewey quickly grabbed his brother’s wrist, not exactly being gentle. 

“It’s a bruise.” Louie said tersely, shaking his arm free. He saw Huey about to open his mouth, probably to ask how it happened. “When we fought the Beagle Boys last time, Bouncer got a pretty good grip on me.”

“Bouncer?” Huey echoed. His brows quickly furrowed and suddenly the rest of Louie’s sleeve was pulled up. 

His whole forearm was a sickly shade of purple, with small blotches of red, green, and yellow spread around. It resembled the shape of a hand, evident by the thin lines that were from where the dog’s fingers were.

Dewey briefly gagged at the sight. He could do large and bloody cuts but he couldn’t handle bad bruises. He looked away, deciding to focus on the wall.

“Are you okay?” Huey tentatively asked, hands gently holding the green one’s arm. 

“I’m fine.” Louie pulled his arm away, the bruise being hidden again. “I’ve had worse bruises before.”

And… that was the wrong thing to say.

Dewey’s head whipped around, both brothers letting out a shout, “WHAT?!”

“Pretend I didn’t say that.” Louie slipped into the closet, fiddling around in the dark as he took his nightwear off and replaced it with his hoodie. 

_‘Don’t forget your meds…’_ He came back out, yawning again. 

Both brothers looked at him. Louie ignored them. 

“Where is this truth stone anyway?”

“Uh… somewhere in New York.”

“Wasn’t it New York City?” Dewey piped up.

“I think so.”

A small smile appeared on Louie’s face. Admittedly, he’d always wanted to go to a big city like LA or New York City. Especially at night.

* * *

“You’re doing amazing, sweetie.” Della said, an extremely proud smile on her beak as she watched her son fly the Sunchaser (though, Della still sometimes called it the Cloudslayer. Dewey did too. Webby switched between the two depending on who she was talking to. Huey didn’t care. Louie refused to call it anything other than the Sunchaser or ‘the plane’). 

Donald sat in the seat next to Huey, both strapped in tightly. Louie found himself glancing over to Dewey, a feeling of something going wrong at any time persistent in his mind. He knew he should trust that they’d be fine. Della was there and she was an excellent pilot. They wouldn’t crash. He trusted her.

(Or he tried to, anyway.)

The plane roughly dipped a bit, making Louie dig his fingers into the seat. 

Why couldn’t they just take a car? New York wasn’t across the ocean, just across the country. Launchpad, Beakley, Scrooge, and Webby had all gotten a ride on land. Why couldn’t he?

Plus, he could charge his phone in the car. His device was halfway dead and if it completely died before they got to the city, he’d lose his mind.

“I’m so sorry!” Dewey shouted. 

Louie looked up, seeing that a bird had been splayed out on the windshield. The bird managed to recover though and clumsily flew away.

Louie laughed a little to himself, then winced. A sharp pain made itself known in his head. “Ow…” He mumbled, rubbing at his temple. He sighed. “How much longer is this trip?”

“Uh…” Huey pulled out a map. Maybe Louie should’ve just checked his phone. “About four more hours, I believe.”

Louie slumped in his seat, positioning himself so he was comfortable. 

He turned his back to the rest of the world, beak inches from the back of his seat. He closed his eyes, wanting to get a little more sleep in.

He was out in seconds.

* * *

He was alone.

In the foyer. 

Inside a bathtu- oh no. 

No.

No, no, no no no no nononononononononononono-

Not again- _not again_. 

He realized the showerhead was in his hands. Screaming, he threw it down and scrambled to the back of the tub. The showerhead cracked. The crack grew bigger and bigger until it shattered into millions of pieces. 

The pieces melted into a black mass, the hue of it slowly turning a dark red. It oozed into the drain, leaving a stain. 

Squinting, Louie noticed that the stain spelled something out.

_This is your fault._

“No!” He cried. 

_“Why did you do this to us, Louie?”_

Freezing, Louie felt someone’s breath on his neck. 

_‘Don’t look.’_ Louie took a breath in, then out.

_“Why won’t you look at us, Louie?”_

_‘It’s just a dream. It’s gotta be.’_

_“Don’t you love us?”_

“...I-I do.”

_“Then WHY?!”_

Louie flinched at the yell. Not because it was loud, no, it was because it was Della’s voice. In the same tone as when she grounded him.

_“LOOK AT ME.”_

Louie didn’t need to be told twice. Going against what he told himself seconds earlier, he turned around and looked at his family.

His bloody, broken, dead family.

 _“You did this to us, Louie. You killed us.”_ She spoke.

“I didn’t mean to…” The first of the tears began.

_“How could you?”_

“I didn’t want this!”

_“Do you hate me that much?”_

The words were stuck in Louie’s throat. He couldn’t say that he didn’t; that he loved her dearly. 

But…

...a part of him knew that was a partial lie.

_“Why don’t you love me?”_ The broken Della wailed. _“I’m your mother! I spent eleven years trying to get back to you boys, and_ this _is how you treat me? How ungrateful can you be?”_

“I tried!” Louie sobbed. “I’m trying!” He was. He was trying so hard every single day to love and like his mother without needing any kind of effort or reminder. 

_“It’s been a year!”_

But his mind just wouldn’t let him.

“I know!”

_“You hate me.”_

“I don’t!” 

_“You hate me.”_

“No!”

_“You hate everyone.”_

That wasn’t Della. That was the mixed voices of Huey and Dewey.

_“You hate us.”_

Louie just cried.

_“You push people away. You’re greedy. You’re selfish.”_

The figures stepped closer, hands grabbing onto Louie’s shoulders and staring into his soul. _“You deserve this.”_

“No…” The sobbing duckling slowly shook his head. But… 

Deep down, he knew they were right. He deserved to be alone. He hurt his family with his schemes just like his mother said.

His mother was never not part of the family.

_He_ was the one who didn’t belong.

His brothers disappeared. 

The dark mass came back up from the drain, slowly wrapping around the ducklings feet. He couldn’t bring himself to care. If this mass killed him, so be it. Maybe then he’d be with his dead family, all of whom he killed.

Or maybe he’d be dragged down to Hell.

Louie couldn’t come to care about that either. It made sense. 

The smell of burning flesh made its way to Louie’s nostrils. That’s when the duck realized the ooze was practically burning him alive. That’s when the pain struck.

He grit his teeth, the pain quickly becoming unbearable. He could feel his skin melting off of his body; parts of him splitting apart. His blood boiled (quite literally) and spilled into the bathtub with tiny pops. It trailed into the drain, which, call him crazy, but was it getting bigger?

Louie breathed heavily, either becoming super numb or losing feeling in parts of his body completely. The mass holding him began to pull him towards the growing drain. Different parts of the mass moved at different paces, some were faster than others.

Some were taking parts of the boy with them.

Louie watched as a finger was pulled off his hand (tons of blood having already seeped out) and carried off into the drain. He didn’t feel a thing.

Then a geyser of red shot up from the hole, the sickening sound of a blade of some sort having cut it to pieces roaring throughout the room.

The mass pulled him closer.

This is where his anxiety picked up.

There was a _saw blade_ awaiting him at the bottom of that. It was going to wreck his entire being and he was probably going to feel all of it. 

_“Scared?”_

Louie looked back at Della. 

_“Good. Now you’ll know how we all felt.”_

A chorus of voices rang out as each of the family members (including Webby, Mrs. Beakley, and Launchpad) entered his field of vision.

_“Sick person.”_

_“Greedy nobody.”_

_“Good-for-nothing brat.”_

_“Failure.”_

_“Disappointment.”_

_“Weak.”_

_“Selfish.”_

And all the self-deprecating thoughts that he’d pushed down throughout the year came back. Fiercely.

He bowed his head, not having any more fight in him. It wasn’t like he could, anyway. Every second there was less and less of him, clumps of bloody feathers and already rotting skin littering the tub.

A harsh laugh erupted from his throat.

Why?

Because they were right.

He was a horrible person.

And he always would be.

...

He fell. 

And he felt the exact moment the blade ripped him into ugly pieces.

* * *

Louie shot up from where he was, eyes wide and terrified. He checked himself and his surroundings immediately.

He was all there. No blood. No exposed bones. No disembodied limbs. 

He was in the Sunchaser. He was alive. He was okay.

“Louie?”

Louie blinked, looking next to him. Donald and Huey were looking at him in concern.

“Are you alright?” Huey was gently holding onto his arm, the same one that had the bruise on it.

The younger triplet couldn’t bring himself to say anything. Huey being right in front of him and not taunting him with how much of a terrible person he was was too much for him. He was asking him if he was okay, like how you would if you cared.

_‘Huey cares about you… they all care about you.’_

_‘No they don’t. They only pretend like it because I’m their family.’_

Tears immediately fell from his eyes without warning as his body shook uncontrollably. 

Why was he so weak and sensitive?

Donald was quick to pull the boy into a tight embrace. “You’re alright.” He ran his hand through Louie’s head feathers. “It was just a dream.”

Huey rubbed his brother’s arm soothingly since Donald was holding him so closely. 

_‘It was just a dream.’_

Louie grabbed onto Donald’s shirt and buried himself into it. It didn’t feel like a dream. Not even close.

“Is Louie alright?” Dewey called from the cockpit. 

“He’s…” Huey hesitated, “physically okay, I think.”

Through his sobbing, Louie could hear his brother asking their mother if she could take over for a bit. Then he felt the plane dip a little before regaining its level and heard little pitter-patters of feet coming closer.

“Hey,” Louie felt Dewey put his hand on his back. “You wanna talk about-?”

Louie vigorously shook his head. He never wanted to talk about them and it usually took his brothers to prod at him to get him to talk. Well, it wouldn’t work this time.

“It’s okay.” Huey assured.

Louie still shook his head. He didn’t want to tell them. He didn’t. They’d judge him. They’d hate him. They’d think it was silly to be dreaming about something that happened so long ago.

Why _was_ he still having nightmares about the timephoon incident? It was over a year ago. He’d bottled up everything he felt about it since the moon people invaded and been fine. 

So… why?

Louie barely registered his brothers wiggling their way into the embrace to wrap their arms around him.

He tried his best to not flinch at the touch. It felt just like when they had grabbed his shoulders in the dream.

“You’re okay.” Dewey quietly said. 

He wasn’t.

He really wasn’t.

Choking down another sob, Louie brainstormed why he had the nightmare that he did. Why was it so vivid? Why did it feel so real? Why could he still feel parts of him dissolving? 

“I-I don’t…” Louie pulled himself as close as possible to his uncle, wanting his brothers to not touch him. “I don’t know why…”

Did anything trigger it? Or was it just random? It had to… 

Louie’s breath halted.

His meds. 

He forgot to take his meds.

He remembered reading about the effects of not taking them, but he didn’t think they would’ve affected him this soon. It shouldn’t take effect this soon, right?

Why…? He didn’t understand.

He didn’t understand any of it. 

Why couldn’t he understand any of it?

“-eathe, Lou!”

Huey had been giving him an order. The noise- there was noise?- in his head was making it difficult to hear. 

“Louie!” 

Louie’s vision started to turn black. 

“Breathe, Louie, please!”

The noise was too loud. He couldn’t focus. He couldn’t breathe. It was too much.

All the bad thoughts that he’d repressed overflowed in his mind like a tsunami. 

“Louie, honey, look at me!”

When had Della…? Wasn’t she flying the plane? Wait, when did they land?

“He’s not responding!” Dewey cried out.

The only one calm was Donald. Louie briefly wondered why.

_‘Probably because he’s used to this. He’s dealt with comforting the kids after nightmares plenty of times before. It’s just routine. It isn’t because he cares.’_

“What’s going on? What happened to him?”

Through all the chaos in his brain he managed to hear this, “He shut down.”

Shut down.

Right. He would do that before he started taking the meds (well, there were two times it happened after, but the frequency of them definitely died down). It’d been so long since he had one… and he was fairly certain that his brothers never got to fully witness it. His mom wasn’t around during those years, so she probably had no clue what was going on. 

“‘Shut down’?” Huey echoed.

“When he’s overwhelmed, he just… stops.” Donald explained. “When he was younger it happened a little more often… but… it stopped, mostly, after he got on meds…”

“Meds-? When did he start taking those? Why does he need those?” 

“You don’t know?” Louie could only imagine that his brothers shook their heads. “I thought you would’ve noticed if he hadn’t told you… boys, Louie has depression.”

Louie didn’t get to hear the reaction. The world turned black.

* * *

He was in a bed. 

That was the first thing he realized. 

The second was that he was in a room that he didn’t recognize. But he didn’t care that much. He just wanted to sleep. He was so tired. 

Slowly, he turned in the bed, wanting to get a little more comfortable. 

When he turned, though, he was met with two observant ducklings. He jumped from how close they were.

“Are you okay?” Huey was quick to ask. 

“Yeah.” No.

“Do you need anything?” Dewey asked as well.

“Sleep.”

“You’ve been asleep for two hours… and slept for another two hours before you woke up from your nightmare…” Dewey quietly informed his younger brother.

“Well, I’m still tired.”

Then Huey’s serious face came up. “No. You have to stay awake.”

“Why?”

“Uncle Donald and Mom flew back to the mansion to get your meds.”

_‘They had to go back because of me.’_ Self-love, minus one. Further into the negatives we go.

The three were in silence for a moment.

“...why didn’t you tell us that you were depressed?” Dewey crawled a bit closer.

“It wasn’t important.” Louie opened the blanket up a bit, not sure if his brothers wanted the invitation.

“It’s important to me.” 

“Me too.” Huey got closer as well, softly gripping the blanket but not taking the invitation. “I mean, I always thought you were just lazy. I never thought that there was anything else to that. I never questioned your constant sleeping or your fluctuating interest in stuff… how did I not see this?”

“It’s not a big deal. Thousands of people have it.” Louie shut his eyes. Maybe he could sneak his way into-

“No. You’re not sleeping.” Huey lifted Louie up. No more lying down. “We’re waiting for Uncle Donald to bring your meds. Why didn’t you take them?”

“Truthfully? I forgot.” He yawned. “Why can’t you just wake me up when they get back?”

“Because.”

“Because?”

“ _Because_.”

“Give me an actual reason.” Louie’s eyes narrowed. He hated it when people didn’t have a proper excuse for something. It was one of the few things that actually seriously ticked him off. “‘Because’ isn’t an answer.” Especially “because”. It was the lamest excuse ever.

Huey opened his mouth to respond, but...

“OKAY!” Dewey sat himself between them. Fights between Huey and Louie weren’t nearly as common as arguments between Huey and Dewey were (then again, Louie never really got into serious arguments much), but when they happened, it got extremely ugly. Louie knew his way with words and wore his heart on his cheek. Dewey always knew when the two of them fought when he heard Huey screaming at someone who wasn’t screaming back and Louie was nowhere to be found. “Let’s listen to some music!”

He pulled his playlist out and tapped the first song, desperate for something to stop a fight from happening. 

_“I’m stuck here staring at my phone.”_

Louie and Huey paused what they were doing to look at the middle kid.

_“Stressed paint eyes shadowed forlorn.”_

Hopefully it was enough to stop the fight and keep Louie awake.

_“Stressed from what I’m thinking on.”_

Dewey knew the reason why Huey wanted Louie up.

_“But I can’t seem to just move on.”_

He just wanted his baby brother to be active and monitored. 

_“I’m killing time, clock mallet crushed.”_

Dewey personally saw nothing wrong with allowing the kid to go back to sleep, but he understood where Huey stood. He was always making sure the two were safe and healthy- _and hadn’t Huey said that too much sleep was bad?_

_“Got nothing done, I’m messing up.”_

“Dewey, turn that off.”

“Nerp!” Dewey chirped. “Music always makes Louie feel better.”

_“But if I need water, I’ll get up.”_

Louie shot Dewey a finger gun. “You’re right.” A sly grin tugged at the green duck’s beak. “Turn it up.”

“No!”

“As you wish, your majesty.” 

“We are going to get in so much trouble.” Huey mumbled.

Louie looked over to Dewey. “Can you turn the bass up?”

“Uh…” Dewey searched his options. “I could connect it to the bar Mom brought!” He rolled off the bed without warning and slid over to the bags that were left with the boys. He ruffled through a few bags before he found it. 

“Dewey, no!”

Dewey connected his phone to the sound bar. “Dewey, yes!”

_“Why is being lazy so much fun when growing up?”_

There was a button on the bar that turned the bass up. 

Dewey pressed it.

Green and blue heard Huey groan. 

Dewey hopped back onto the bed. “How long until we get complaints?”

“We’re already getting them.” Louie nodded his head towards Huey. 

Dewey let out a laugh. “Think he’ll go complain to the front desk?”

“Maybe.”

“I’m right here!” Huey interjected.

“Did you hear that, Dew?”

Dewey blinked, not catching onto the joke for a second. “Huh-? What do you mean? I only hear you, twin brother.”

“I hate you both.” Despite the annoyed tone, a smile was threatening to make itself known on Huey’s face.

The other two brothers laughed.

“Nah, you love us.” Louie grinned, then made a tiny yawn.

It was then that Dewey really noticed the bags under Louie’s eyes.

* * *

“How long have you had it?” Huey poked his rice around.

“Had what?” Louie took a drink of water. Donald and Della had gotten back earlier with a few things (including the meds) in hand. 

“Your depression.”

“Oh.” Louie set the glass down. “Well… I was diagnosed when we were… what, five? Didn’t get the meds until we were seven. That’s when Uncle Donald could actually afford them without having to sacrifice anything.”

Louie didn’t have to turn around to know that Della was intently listening.

“That’s young.” Dewey commented, having finished a bread roll. “Can people that young get depression, though? I thought it was only teenagers.”

“Nope.” Louie hummed. “Anyone can have it. I was just one of the unlucky ones who got it young.”

“Oh.”

* * *

New York City was certainly… interesting. Sure, he’d been expecting all the trash and the hustle (not to this degree, admittedly), but he still found himself surprised. You’d think that after tons of adventures to dangerous and foreign places that something like trash wouldn’t surprise him. 

Louie was currently being dragged by the hand by Huey, who was being dragged by Dewey, who was being dragged by Webby, who was- you get the point. They didn’t want to get lost in such a big place. They didn’t need a repeat of when the family actually had left the triplets because they’d gone off to a gift shop instead of back to the Sunchaser like they were supposed to. 

How were they supposed to know that there would be a big chase that resulted in as soon as Della and Scrooge got on the plane they were taking off?

_‘At least they were with me…’_ Louie couldn’t imagine what life would be like without his brothers.

Which is why when they found themselves in life-threatening situations he couldn’t stop worrying about the wellbeing of them. Stupid brain being sharp and seeing all the potential ways they could all meet their demise.

A faint memory of the timephoon echoed. Louie forced it back down.

The family crossed roads and pushed through crowds. A few times, someone almost lost their grip. That small jolt of anxiety was always nice. He was terrified of being lost. Completely.

He wondered if that’s how his family felt when- _‘No, stop thinking about that. It was a year ago. Get over it.’_

During their journey, Louie noticed a café. For some reason, one that he couldn’t quite place, he really wanted to go in and sit in one of the booths by the window. 

But he couldn’t exactly do that. They were in New York to get Veritas Crystallum e Italia, which had somehow ended up in New York City. They weren’t there to enjoy it- though, honestly? They probably would. They usually did since Della wanted her boys to experience almost everything they could.

Admittedly though, he wanted to go to that café alone. Which shocked him considering how he was absolutely terrified of being separated from everyone in an unknown place. 

Before he knew it, he was being dragged across another street. They were getting close to the Statue of LIberty now. Apparently the crystal was somewhere in an underground cavern beneath it? Louie didn’t really pay attention. He was just following where his family went at this point.

Louie didn’t even realize they’d gotten onto a boat until they were halfway into the water.

He yawned again. Why was he so tired? (Well… he was tired all the time so maybe this shouldn’t be a surprise…) 

Huey seemed to notice that. “You okay?”

“Tired.”

Huey just frowned at him.

“You’re still tired?” Della looked over from where she was sitting. “How much did you sleep last night?”

“Well…” Louie thought. “I clocked out at nine but… I think I woke up at, like… three in the morning? I went back to sleep at five then was woken up at eight.”

“That’s nine hours… and it’s eleven right now. I don’t think you should be tired…” Huey pointed out.

Louie just shrugged. “I’m tired pretty much every second of every day. I can go to sleep on command.”

“It’s true!” Dewey piped up. “Once we were on a really long but intense minecart ride and Louie was bored so he fell asleep and didn’t wake up until we reached the end of the track.”

“That’s… concerning.” Della’s thumbs fiddled with each other. She caught her brother’s glare. “Not the falling asleep part- Donnie can do it too- but the being capable of being asleep through a whole minecart ride. I _know_ those things aren’t comfortable.”

“It can be a good thing.” Or a bad thing. Once, they had been tied up upside down and not wanting to deal with everything, Louie fell asleep and woke up in a totally unfamiliar room by himself. “Just ask Uncle Donald.”

Della looked to her brother. “He was the easiest to put down to bed.”

“Oh…” A familiar look of sadness crossed the woman’s face. Putting the boys to bed was another thing she never got to fully experience because she had decided to just up and abandon- no, stop Louie, she didn’t mean to get lost. It was a mistake. Just like the timephoon.

Just like it.

…

It was nothing like it.

Dewey quietly nudged Louie in the arm. Louie jumped slightly, being pulled out of his thoughts, and looked at his brother. “I changed what I wanna do.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t want to use the stone on Scrooge. I wanna use it on Lena so she’s forced to admit how much she cares about Webby.”

Louie grinned. “Good one.” Lena always acted like she didn’t care as much as she did- heck, the teen (teen? Did she age?) would risk her life to save the girl and sometimes could act like Uncle Donald when it comes to her. Lena was typically good at lying (and it would take a little bit for Louie to figure it out), but when she talks about Webby the girl was a lot easier to read.

Made Louie wonder if there was more to that relationship than meets the eye. 

(Who was he kidding? Of course there was.)

Sometimes (more like a lot of times) Louie was grateful he had sharp eyes. It allows him to catch every uncontrollable laugh or smile, every blush, every look of fondness, every tremble of fear or nervousness or excitement, and every textbook mannerism and symptom of a crush.

Maybe he could use the stone to get Lena to admit more than a fondness. 

He’d spare her the embarrassment of doing it in front of anyone, though. He wasn’t _that_ cruel. Just wanted confirmation so he could be an every-now-and-then-wingman. 

As they were approaching the statue, Louie thought if Webby was aware or if she was oblivious. 

...probably the latter.

The boat docked.

“Alright, lads!” Scrooge held his cane out, pointing it towards the statue. “We have to travel to the crown. There should be a secret entrance somewhere.”

_‘We know this.’_ “Will there be stairs?” Louie asked. 

He was met with a chorus of “yes”.

They were met with an exaggerated groan.

* * *

_‘So… tired…. I… hate… stairs…’_ Did anyone ever think about giving the statue an elevator? 

Louie blinked, looking up. His family were several steps above him, no one seeming like they were out of breath. 

“Hey, you good?” Dewey called down from… what, four flights above him? 

“Yeah,” Louie huffed. “I’m good. Just… uh… I’ll meet you there?” _‘Or meet you outside.’_

“I got it.” Beakley spoke. Louie could hear the woman descending down the stairs.

_‘Not good enough to walk up the stairs? Pathetic.’_ He didn’t even fight as Bentina lifted the duckling onto her shoulder, deciding to just indulge in the rest.

Eventually, they reached the crown and Louie was put down. 

“You ‘kay?” Dewey was quick to ask.

“Yeah.” Louie sat against the railing, being on the top while some of the others were still on stairs. “So, secret passage, huh?”

Huey nodded. “It should go all the way down to the underground.”

_‘How is there a secret passage here?’_ It was a cramped spot. How…? He searched around, briefly looking outside. 

They were… high up.

“Maybe it’s like Mount Neverest?” Webby offered. “We’d just have to throw ourselves off the staircase to see.” She jumped on the railing and was about to leap, but Beakley grabbed her by the back of the vest and silenced any words about to come out of the duckling’s mouth with a simple “no”. 

“What if the entrance was actually at the bottom of the statue?” Della sighed. “It makes more sense. I’m pretty sure I saw a weird panel out of place…”

“Lass, why didn’t you say anything?” Scrooge tapped his cane against the ground impatiently. 

“I thought it was up here like you said! _So-rry!_ ”

“Watch the tone-”

“Oh boy,” Louie let his head fall into his hudded up kneels. There they go. Fighting. But that’s what family does, so he doesn’t mind the petty arguments. 

“Hey,” Louie looked up seeing Huey tugging on his sleeve. “You-?”

“I’m fine. You don’t have to keep asking every five seconds. Nothing’s changed.”

“Bu-”

“ _Nothing’s changed_.” Why did they act like things were different now that they knew he was sad all the time?

Huey slowly nodded and directed his attention to the city. Louie decided to do the same. There wasn’t a lot to work with and the longer time went on, the more Webby’s idea of portals became a lot more appealing. 

But… Louie didn’t want to jump to his death quite yet. 

_‘Maybe Mom was right. Maybe we climbed the stairs for no reason… wait…’_ The duckling’s eyes landed on the torch that was just a little while away. There wasn’t a way to get to it from the bottom (unless you climbed it) and there wasn’t a way in from the top (...unless you climbed it). 

Ooh boy. _Climbing._

Or they could drop from the Sunchaser, but that wouldn’t be discreet at all. 

Louie got to his feet as the family began to descend. The green one was about to open his mouth to tell them about his idea, but the words found themselves stuck. His family started to get out of view and…

Why did his adventurer instincts kick in at the worst possible times?

Wasting no time, Louie pulled himself onto the crown window, hands quickly finding safe places to root themselves. Taking in his surroundings and considering his physical strength, Louie figured out the best way to get to the torch to confirm his suspicions. 

_‘Just don’t look down and you’ll be fine…’_

Oh, what the hell was he doing?

He found himself on the crown, the wind blowing a bit harsher than he was used to. Against his better judgement, he looked down and- _‘Oh my god, why am I doing this?’_

Louie stalked over to the side of the crown, seeing parts of the statue jutting out. This was totally it. 

The duck let his feet hang off the side. He took a breath. Was he really doing this?

His body twisted around and his body hung there. 

He was really doing this.

Every grip of his was a death-grip. His heart was pounding. Why didn’t he get Dewey or Webby to do this?

_‘If you did that, you’d get them hurt.’_

Determination he didn’t know he had slowly settled in.

_‘Hand there, hand there, foot there, careful…’_

Finally, he reached the shoulder and waddled over to where the arm went up. Small knobs stuck out. Some of the ledges were broken, which didn’t make Louie feel any better.

_‘Hand there, hand there… foot…’_

“LOUIE?!”

Louie dared to peek over his shoulder. He was already halfway up the arm. Back in the crown stood his family, all of which were staring at him. 

“I- uh…” Louie refused to look down further. So, he moved up.

“Honey, no!” Della cried out, clearly afraid for her son’s safety.

Louie swore he heard someone say “I’m going after him”, but he wasn’t sure. If he did hear it, it may have been the reason why he sped up. He heard the adults yell something else, but Louie wasn’t paying attention.

The knobs wrapped around the torch, meaning that Louie would have to dangle almost three hundred feet in the air with nothing but the solid ground to land on.

That was cool. He was cool. He could do this. 

And if the entrance wasn’t in the torch, then he’d honestly rather risk jumping and aiming for the water than to climb back down. 

“You are insane.”

Louie looked down, but not too far. Just a few knobs away was Dewey. He looked concerned but at the same time seemed excited. 

_‘Of course he’d like this.’_

Louie pressed on.

“Hey!” Dewey chased after him.

“Be careful!” Louie chastised. “Don’t go too fast. You’ll slip.”

Dewey blinked at him. “Right, right…” Despite that, the boy didn’t listen and quickly caught up. 

Louie sent a glare to his older brother and Dewey just looked away.

The boys climbed up the arm, pulling themselves onto it when they reached the top (which wasn’t at all easy). Louie heaved, happy to not be hanging in the air.

“You alright?” Dewey seemed like he barely broke a sweat.

“Me? I’m great. Fantastic.” Louie forced his legs to move forward, spotting something odd. _‘Are those hinges?’_

“Why did you climb this anyway?”

Louie didn’t say anything. He only put his hand on a dusty panel and pulled.

It opened.

“Woah!” Dewey’s eyes sparkled at the sight of a (possible) secret door. “Wait, is this the entryway to the underground?”

“I think so.”

“How’d you know it was here?”

Louie shrugged. “I honestly took a guess.”

Dewey laughed. “Well, come on! Let’s go!”

“Wait, Dew, we should tell our family first since… well, y’know, they don’t know we’re safe?”

“Right!” Dewey sheepishly smiled. He ran over to the edge. “HEY! We found the secret entrance! Me and Louie are gonna go down it!”

“Hold on, lad!” Scrooge yelled back… but it didn’t seem that Dewey heard him. Or he did and the idea of adventure was too exciting to wait.

“Alright!” Dewey peered into the darkness. “Are there stairs or…?”

Louie pulled his phone out of his pocket (how did it not fall?) and flipped the flashlight on. He pointed it in the doorway and…

It was a slide. 

And stairs.

But more importantly, _a slide._

Dewey gasped in excitement. “C’mon, Lou-Lou!” He wasted no time grabbing his brother’s hand and practically dragging him down the rickety slide.

The first thing Louie noticed was that the slide was incredibly dusty and dirty and rusty and old. He doubted anyone had come through here in a while. The second thing he noticed was that the slide was bound to fall apart any second. The third was that halfway down the slide had already fallen apart.

Under different circumstances, he would’ve laughed at Dewey cheers to sheer terror as the older duck realized the slide’s absence.

Both ducklings slid off the half-cut tube screaming, Louie’s phone getting knocked out of his hand. 

_‘This is it, we’re gonna die.’_ Maybe if Louie was faster, Dewey wouldn’t have followed him up the arm. No one would’ve seen him and they’d look on the ground floor for him. Then he could have possibly showed up with the stone and surprised everyone. 

For a split second, Louie saw the ground as they plummeted towards it. There was something… off about it. Fear was replaced with confusion for a moment. 

But that moment was short-lived as the boys splat on the solid ground… or so they thought. 

Instead, the Duck boys crashed into water, the cool liquid quickly filling Louie’s senses.

He couldn’t breathe.

Louie thrashed around, trying to swim up to break the surface but found he was unable to. He kicked his legs and that’s when he realized something was wrapped around him.

It felt just like his nightmare. The sounds of a saw blade echoed in his mind and Louie panicked. He started kicking at whatever was holding him, but it wouldn’t let go.

This wasn’t some plant or anything like that, no, this was _alive_. He could _feel_ it pulsating.

For a moment, Louie swore he heard Dewey scream his name from above. 

Louie started kicking harder. _‘Let me go!’_

Through his assault, he heard something- _someone_ dive into the water. _‘Please find me.’_ He didn’t know how deep he was. 

It didn’t take long until his vision was darkening. This was it. He was going to drown. He was going to drown and he didn’t even know what was holding him. 

Louie stopped resisting. There wasn’t a point. He’d accepted his fate.

Then there were hands around his waist.

* * *

Louie gasped for air. His throat hurt and felt full.

He coughed. 

And kept coughing.

“Hey,” Dewey was quick to pat his brother’s back. “It’s okay, I got you.”

Louie leaned into Dewey’s embrace. “I feel awful.” Louie noted that his surroundings included his phone flashlight- _‘So it lived.’_ \- and complete and utter darkness.

“Almost drowning will do that to ya.”

Louie looked in front of him, seeing the body of water the boys had fallen into.

“You’ve been out for thirty minutes.” Dewey stated quietly. “I… I thought you…”

“I’m still kicking.” Louie hoarsely mumble, trying to stand up. Dewey didn’t let go of him.

“I thought that maybe Mom and them would have come down by now…” Dewey absently said, looking up at the small light at the top.

Louie didn’t respond to that. _‘Why hadn’t they shown up yet?’_ The younger duckling glanced at his brother. “Uh, what happened?”

Dewey blinked, blanking for a moment. “Oh, uh, you were caught by a… well, I don’t know what it was. It was a monster of some kind. At first, I thought it was a squid but the tentacles didn’t look like a squid’s…” Dewey hummed. “It had a lot of eyes too. And a lot of teeth.” They began moving through the dark, Dewey having Louie’s phone in one hand. “I think it wanted to eat you.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“You asked!” Dewey defended. “Anyway, there was a spear in the sand at the bottom of the water. I took it and rammed it into it’s tentacle and it backed off. I grabbed you and came back up here and tried to do CPR but… uh…”

“You didn’t know how to do it.” 

“Nerp.” Dewey’s shoulders sank. “But I think I did good enough… I mean… you woke up.”

“Unfortunately.”

Dewey was quick in a response. “Don’t say that.” 

“Eh…” Louie stopped. “Hey, Dew, shine the light around us?”

“Okay.” 

Most of the walls were plain grey, as was the floor. 

“Aw, that’s boring! There’s nothing here!”

Louie sighed. “Give me the light.”

Dewey obliged.

The green duckling used the light to find things of interest. Above the water was the staircase, but a portion of it was missing. The broken slide was further up. The light went across the water and Louie shivered, remembering the feeling of the tendril tightening around his leg… or it was that he was cold. Or both. 

He looked around more, the same grey walls surrounding them. 

“Maybe there’s another secret passage?”

“Probably…” There was no way that this place was built solely to keep a monster in it. No way.

…But then again, how did this thing even get in here? Was it an experiment? Did it get in as a baby? Was it small as a baby? Louie’s head hurt.

Then an idea struck in both triplets. 

“You don’t think…” 

“...it’s in there?”

They stared at the water. Louie swore he saw something move.

“Nope. Not doin’ it. I would rather sit here and starve.” 

Dewey huffed, putting on a faux expression of confidence. “It’s fine! We can do this! We’re the Duck family!”

“Can we at least check the walls up here first? Be thorough?”

Dewey was quick to agree to that.

They didn’t find anything interesting other than a small stick hidden in the dirt that Dewey accidentally tripped over.

Louie poked at it. It didn’t look or feel like a typical stick. 

“Is it a switch?”

“You wanna find out?”

Blue grinned and pulled the lever without hesitation. A low rumbling echoed through the room. The walls shook and dirt collapsed from the roof. Both brothers huddled close, eyes searching for danger. 

“Hey, Lou, look!”

The water was draining and the lights turned on. The boys watched the dissipating liquid attentively, waiting for the monster. After a couple more seconds of waiting, they saw the top of it. It was a smooth, round, black circle at first. As the water continued to fall, more of it became visible. It had three tendrils and a nub, indicating that it had a leg that was previously cut off.

“It’s not as big as I thought…” Or as scary. It was just a black mass- _oh god no._

Hearing the green duckling, it’s eyes shot open. 

There were so many eyes. More than ten, definitely. All it’s eyes fixated on the boys. 

Then it screamed.

And then Louie understood what made this thing terrifying. 

The water had fully drained at this point, bones and weapons littering the ground and _oh god, those were half-eaten corpses._

Despite being frozen in fear, his brain still made a plan. He snapped back to reality when one tendril slumped onto the ground and started inching towards them.

He stood back a bit, putting his arm out to get Dewey to move back with him.

“What are we doing?”

“Luring it.” Louie’s eyes never left the monster. 

Dewey nodded, his attention returning to the creature.

Without any haste, the monster dragged itself towards the boys. It was fairly slow, but Louie could tell it’s tendrils extended further. 

When it was close enough, Louie took a deep breath and turned to Dewey.

“You go one way, I’ll go the other. Grab a weapon _that you know how to use_ ,” He emphasized that part. He didn’t want Dewey to make a mistake by grabbing something he didn’t fully know how to use and subsequently get hurt or killed. “We get behind it and see what we can work with.”

“Do you think the exit’s over there?”

“Probably?” If it wasn't, then, well… they were stuck unless they could get up to the stairs. 

The boys waited a few moments for the perfect window. “Go!” 

A tendril swiped at Louie. Louie ducked under it, picking up half a spear. He turned around, aimed, and threw it. The monster screeched at the sharp tip pierced it. 

Louie got another spear and met up with Dewey. 

Both of them sighed in relief when they saw an iron door. They rushed towards it, hands clawing at the doorknob. They could hear and feel the creature’s thumping behind them get louder. 

They managed to get the door open slightly and Louie ushered his brother in first. Louie followed but barely made it halfway in when he tripped. He turned, seeing that the tendril was wrapped around him again. As he began getting pulled towards it, he felt Dewey’s hands wrap around his back and chest. 

It was basically a game tug of war. Louie kicked at the black tendril, just like he did before. 

But that didn’t work then or now.

“The spear!” Louie commanded.

Feeling a hand remove itself from him, Louie stopped kicking just as the spear flew past his shoulder. It went into one of the monster’s eyes, causing it to let go of Louie with a glass-shattering scream. 

Dewey pulled Louie in, throwing him down roughly and slamming the door shut behind them. They were in darkness again.

“We survived that one…” Dewey breathed. 

“Yeah,” Louie rubbed his elbow. “I kinda hope everyone else doesn’t come in here…” He brought his phone out. “Huey called.”

Dewey walked to Louie’s side. “Call him back.”

“We should check our surroundings first.”

“Right, right...”

They were in a hallway with a door at the end. There was a keypanel next to it and various file cabinets lined the wall. A few of the cabinet doors moved. 

“Oh, I don’t think I like this.” Dewey mumbled.

Louie shined the light against the cabinets. They all had labels, all of which were creatures or monsters. “I think we have to search for the password…” He observed. He looked down, seeing a tripwire and an old painted message. 

_I’m a lion with a human head. Guess my riddle or you’ll be dead._

“Hey, Dewey?”

“Yeah?”

“How good at riddles are you?”

“I’m decent at them?”

Louie only nodded. Dewey followed his line of sight and saw the words and the wire. “Why is there a wire?”

“I don’t know. Be careful, though.”

* * *

Louie plucked cobwebs out of his feathers. The brothers had gone through trial after trial, picking apart the puzzles and avoiding the monsters and traps. 

“This stone better be worth it.” Louie smoothed his feathers out.

“I mean, it’s a truth serum.” Dewey shrugged. “Launchpad said the truth can be a very scary thing.”

“ _Launchpad_ said that?”

Dewey blinked. “He was quoting someone else… probably. The guy sometimes says very wise words.”

Louie absently nodded. “This should be the last trial.”

“Yay!” Dewey cheered. “How long have we been in here?”

“About three hours now.”

“Really?”

“If my phone’s time is right, then yeah.”

“Geez, I wonder how Mom and the others are feeling…” The older duck perked up. “Wait, did we ever call Huey?”

Louie blinked, thinking. “No, we did not.”

“Should we?”

“We’re almost at the end. He can just wait some more.”

“Okay.”

The brothers wandered around. Unlike previous rooms, the lights were already on. Usually, that meant the puzzle was complete.

The boys came to a dead end. 

Dewey put his hands on his hips. “Okay… maybe there’s a secret-”

“Nope.” Louie spoke. “Look,” He pointed to words on the wall.

“When did those get there?”

“They only show up in the phone’s flashlight.”

“Is it blacklight?”

“No, it’s not blacklight. Does this,” he waved his phone in Dewey’s face, “look like a blacklight to you?”

“...maybe?”

Louie glared at him. 

“Anyway! What does it say?”

“Uh…”

_What are you afraid of?_

Louie recited the words. 

“Hm… well, I don’t like big spiders…”

“Wait, hold on Dew, the words changed.”

“They did?”

“Mhm. It says ‘what’s your greatest fear?’.” It seems it wanted something more specific.

“My greatest?”

“Your greatest.” Louie affirmed.

Dewey’s face paled for a second but he quickly regained his composure. Didn’t mean that Louie hadn’t noticed.

“Well, I think you already know.”

“It’s being hated, right?”

“Yeah. That and… uh… disappointing people.”

Louie seemed unfazed. “You’re right, I already knew.” He couldn’t blame his brother. That look of disapproval and those words that packed the right amount of punch… it just hurt a ton and did wonders for mental health. Louie often wondered just how much Dewey wanted ( _needed_ ) validation. He knew it was a lot and Louie wanted nothing but to tell his brother that he was great the way he was and didn’t need to change for others.

(He should take his own advice.)

Louie looked back up at where the words were. Underneath the words now sat a blue dot. 

“What does the dot mean?”

“It accepted your answer.”

Dewey grinned. “Nice.” He looked between the words and Louie. “It probably wants _your_ greatest fear now.”

Louie thought for a second. What was his greatest fear? He was afraid of a lot of things, including a couple that could be considered ‘greatest fears’. But… did he have to confess all of those? He’d rather not…

“Lou?”

“I’m thinking.”

He was afraid of hurting the people he loved. He was afraid of making some terrible mistake like Della did (didn’t that go hand-in-hand with the first one?). He was afraid of other people invading and taking over the world. He was afraid of getting hurt. He was afraid of disappointing everyone, just like Dewey. He was afraid of his own mind. He was…

He knew what it was.

Louie sucked a breath in. “Abandonment.”

“Huh?”

“I’m terrified of everyone I love abandoning me and not needing me.”

A green dot manifested on the wall.

The whole room turned blue, then green, then split the colors. They started flashing, causing the kids to close their eyes. Music started blasting and it was only getting louder and louder. Despite the loud music, they both swore they heard something open up.

Then there was a rope pulling the boys into two separate rooms.

Louie landed in his room harshly, hitting the bruise that was already on his arm. He hissed in pain. Recovering from the toss, he found himself in the foyer of the mansion. In a ba- _‘You’ve gotta be kidding me.’_

The showerhead was in his hands again. He wanted to replicate his nightmare and toss it down, but he controlled himself. He gently put it back in its place, tense from feeling like it was all going to go wrong.

He looked around the room. 

He was alone.

Louie tried to get a handle on his breathing. The terrifying feeling of “you killed everyone” was in the back of his mind, threatening its way to the front. 

_‘Where’s Dewey?’_

The bathtub suddenly disappeared, causing the boy to topple over and onto the carpet. His head banged against the floor and Louie’s hands instantly went to the forming bump.

The duckling looked up, faintly hearing something moving. He noticed that the door was ajar, the sunset peeking through the space. Suddenly, the lights flickered out, leaving him in total darkness, sans that crack in the door (which… shouldn’t there still be _some_ light through the windows if it’s only sunset?). 

Then the door started closing. Louie scrambled up from his spot and sprinted to the door. Just before it closed completely, he managed to grip the knob and roughly pulled it back open. 

The sun blinded him for a moment and Louie looked away. The sound of a car turning on caught his attention. His eyes darted to where the sound came from. 

His whole family, non-biological ones included, packing up a large truck. 

Hesitant, Louie walked over to them. “W-What are you doing?”

The family all looked at him, their once joyful or neutral expressions becoming annoyed. “We’re leaving.” Dewey said first, aggressively pushing past him with a box in his hands.

Louie felt his heart plummet. “...what?” 

“We can’t stay around you.” Huey supplied. “You’re a danger to this family.”

“I…” Louie couldn’t believe his ears. 

“Your schemes, your cons, your laziness, your reluctance to go on adventures…” Della began listing off. “You act like you don’t want to be part of this family.”

“I do!” Louie shouted out. “Of course I do! Our family is awesome. I just…”

“Just what, lad?” Scrooge tapped his cane in front of Louie. 

“I’m not good at adventures- you all know this! Schemes, cons… _that’s_ what I’m good at! _That’s_ what puts me apart from everyone else in this family.”

“Yeah, it does.” Dewey bit. “You’re a villain among a bunch of heroes.”

“I-” Louie felt his heart sink more. “No...”

“I can’t believe my son turned out like _this_.” Della glowered at the boy. He shrank back in fear. “Spend a decade trying to get back to my family and one of my sons is a disappointment… Donnie, how could you let him turn out like this?”

“I tried to raise him well.” Donald said calmly. “But no matter what I did, he was always bad. After years of him messing up and being bad, I just gave up on him. I was planning to abandon him in stores, but he always came back.”

Louie remembered those times. He and his brothers would sometimes run off or Louie would see something and go away from the others. He’d lose them for a bit, panic usually building, before finally seeing them in an aisle close to where he left. He’d run over and they’d exchange hugs and Donald would tell him to not do it again (it still happened afterward. Donald only stopped being _as_ worried when the boys were nearing their tenth birthday. But that was only by a teensy little bit).

Donald would be relieved. Why would he want to abandon him if he was always so relieved? Why would he tell him to not do it again-?

_“Phooey, I was hoping you’d stay lost.”_

When did… when did he say that? Why was Louie seeing an angry Donald? Why was he seeing his brothers grumbling at his appearance? Didn’t they usually hug him? Why did everyone look so annoyed? Why did Donald put Huey and Dewey in the cart and not him? Why were they speeding away? Where were they going? Why were they leaving him?!

Tears formed in the ducklings eyes.

“Great, there he goes. Crying like that baby he is.”

A bitter laugh echoed in his head. _‘I_ am _the baby. I’m the youngest.’_ His face didn’t reflect his thoughts. His arm shook.

“I guess there was a reason you guys called him ‘The Evil Triplet’.” Webby huffed.

“Of course there was. He’s the worst. I thought you knew that.” Dewey playfully shoved his sister’s arm.

“Unlike you, I had to learn that. He isn’t my actual family.”

“Stop…” Louie mumbled.

“Stop?” Huey put a hand on his hip. “Why? Don’t like it when you’re the one getting tormented. News flash, _Llewellyn_ , you’ve been doing that to us for years. Don’t even get me started on that whole timephoon. You nearly got us all killed and for what? Some treasure? I thought family mattered to you.”

“It does!” Louie sobbed. “I love all of you! I felt awful for that. I thought that- that it was a good idea. I thought getting lost treasure before they were lost would be beneficial! More treasure and artifacts to add to the bin. More magical stuff to use on adventures or use as defenses. I swear my intentions were good!”

“Your intentions are never good.” Huey narrowed his eyes at his brother- if that was even possible. 

Louie knew he couldn’t win this battle. He tried anyway. “What about all the times I saved you? Game night? I saved all of you from the timephoon! I mean, yeah I caused it, but still! I saved Launchpad from the scammer… kind of. I stopped the Bombie! Also kind of my fault. Me and Webby went and got the Harp of Mervana. We figured out the truth about Hazel House!”

“All the bad things you’ve done cancel that all out.” Huey stated. “What about all the times you messed up and almost got us and yourself killed?”

“He should’ve died.” Dewey snarked.

“I wish he did.” Della said. Louie’s tears worsened. “I would’ve rather come home to one dead son than one worthless son.”

“The vehicle is all packed, sir.” Mrs. Beakley stated, her arms behind her back. “We can leave the brat whenever you wish.”

“Aye,” Scrooge grinned slightly. “C’mon kids, let’s go to our new home.”

“Wha…?” Louie feverishly wiped his tears away. “No! No, please, don’t leave!” He grabbed his brothers’ arms. “I swear I-I’ll change! I’ll be better! I won’t just be a nobody in the family- I’ll do something useful! Just _please_ don’t leave!”

“Let go.” Dewey said, venom in his voice,

Louie shook his head. If he let go, they’d leave him.

“I said LET GO!” Dewey pushed Louie away, not caring as Louie fell on his back and hit his head on the pavement.

“Let’s go, Dewey.” Louie heard doors open and close. He sat up and watched as his whole family left. The truck drove around the money sign statue. Louie couldn’t bring himself to get on his feet. His family didn’t want him. There was no way they’d let him stay or that they’d come back.

Reluctantly, the green-clad duck trudged back into the house. 

Imagine his surprise when there was nothing inside.

The carpet was gone. Paintings were gone. Furniture. _Everything._

Louie slowly made his way up the stairs, finding the hallway empty as well. Despite the bareness, he still knew which door led to the triplets’ room. He opened the door and saw his belongings. _His_. Huey and Dewey’s things were gone. There was a single bed in the corner of the room, stuffed animals littering it. 

Seeing the room devoid of his brother’s things broke something in him. Tears once again pooled in his eyes and he scurried onto his bed. He held two of his stuffies close- the blue bear and the red dog. They were Dewey and Huey’s favorites respectively. 

He sobbed into the toys for what felt like hours. 

In reality, it’d only been a couple minutes.

“Lou?”

Louie’s eyes popped open. In the doorway stood Dewey, but he didn’t seem as angry as before.

Dewey took a couple steps towards him. “Are you okay?”

“Why are you asking?” Louie breathed out. “You pushed me to the ground earlier…”

“I…” Dewey’s fist clenched and unclenched. He didn’t say anything, but he sat on top of the bed and hesitantly put a hand to Louie’s back. Louie flinched at the touch.

“It’s a test.” He said. “You just… you gotta wake up.”

“And how would I do that?”

“Confront what you’re afraid of.”

Louie let out a crazed laugh. “What I’m afraid of? What I’m afraid of just left in a truck. I’m alone here. No one is coming back for me. They all hate me.”

“I’m here.” Dewey said uncharacteristically quietly. “I came back for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I woke up from my fear. It was a lot of people booing me and calling me names. They said I’d never amount to anything. They said I would never be able to protect my family- that I’d get them all killed. But then I said ‘no’. I yelled at everyone. ‘I’ll always protect my family! You’re completely wrong!’. I believed in myself and I woke up. The room gave me the opportunity to leave you behind. I don’t know why it did. Obviously, I’m never going to leave you or Huey behind.” He smiled at Louie. “Anyway, I’m pretty sure all you gotta do is believe that you’re not whatever the voices said you were.”

“...how can I do that if what they said was true?”

“They’re not.”

“But they are!”

Dewey expressed doubt. “What’d they say?”

“That I really am The Evil Triplet. That I do nothing but get my family hurt. I’m useless. I bring everyone down. I-”

“You’re not useless.” Dewey assured, cutting Louie off. “You’re the sharp one. You’re the eyes that can see every single angle. You’ve gotten us out of a lot of tight situations. You talk your way out of stuff, too. The adventures you get to plan are always awesome! Honestly, everyone looks forward to when you’re the one planning it. It’s fun to sneak around and trick bad people.”

Louie chuckled. “I’m glad _you_ like them. Mom doesn’t.”

Dewey shrugged. “She has fun on them too, even if she wants to deny it.”

Louie smiled a little. But then he frowned. “Do you hate me?”

“What?”

“Do you hate me? Please, be honest.”

“Of course not! You’re my brother, how could I hate you?” Dewey asked as if it was the most ridiculous question in the history of ridiculous questions.

“Do you like who I am?”

“Yes!” Dewey was quick in his answer. “I love who you are! I love who Huey is! And Webby! There’s no way I could ever hate any of you. You’re all awesome- _we’re_ awesome!” He pulled Louie in for a side-hug. “We’re the Duck family! We’re amazing! Everyone in this family loves each other. Don’t ever forget that.”

Louie shrank in Dewey’s side. “...you mean that?”

“Of course. And if you don’t believe me, I’m gonna get Huey to list off all his reasonings for why you’re awesome. You know he has a list for it.”

Louie snickered. “He totally does.”

The boys smiled at each other.

Dewey suddenly frowned. “Hey, do you… do you think that all the time?”

“Think what?”

“That we hate you?”

Louie was rendered in silence.

“Louie?”

“I guess so.”

“Why?”

Louie shrugged. “I just do. I wish I didn’t.”

“Well… can you start believing us now? If I promise you?”

Louie thought about it for a second. “I can try, I think.”

Blue beamed. “That’s good.”

Then the whole room went white.

* * *

Louie blinked his way back into consciousness. His vision was blurry and it took a second to realize that it was because he was crying. 

“Hey,” Louie felt someone nudge him. He looked over to see Dewey, abandoned tears in his eyes.

“Hi.” Louie breathed slowly. His body felt fatigued- a different kind of fatigue.

Dewey seemed to notice. “Uh, you were freaking out when I woke up. You were crying and mumbling stuff. It was… it was scaring me.”

Dewey? Scared? That wasn’t a pairing Louie saw too often.

“I hate seeing my family in pain… unless they kinda deserved it. But you didn’t!” Dewey huffed. “You… I don’t know, it… you’ve said that nothing’s changed but… I feel like I’m walking on eggshells now. Like… depressed people hurt themselves. Kill themselves, even. Anything could make that happen and I just… I don’t… I can’t lose you.” 

Louie stared at his brother. _‘Great. I’m hurting them. Why do I always have to ruin stuff? You can fix this. You can.’_

“Stop.” Louie strictly said. “First off, I’m… well, not currently, I’m not hurting myself. I’m not gonna kill myself. That’s… that's not exactly how depression works. I mean, yeah, it’s more likely to happen, but not always. It’s not a guarantee.” A tired smile appeared on his beak, a loose attempt in reassuring his brother. “Hey, how about this? I promise that if sometime in the future I do get those thoughts, I’ll go to you.”

“What if I’m not there? What if I can’t protect you?”

“You will be.” Louie knew that wasn’t a truth, but the gentle smile that appeared on Dewey’s face made Louie feel less bad about it.

Dewey exhaled. “Okay… okay. The truth stone is in that room.”

Louie stood up and extended a hand out to his brother. “Let’s go get it.”

Dewey took his hand. “Yeah.”

The boys entered the next room. In the center was a golden pedestal, adorned with sparkling smaller gems. If Louie had to guess, he’d say they were rubies. Patterns wrapped around it, none of them seemingly important. Atop it was a fairly large red gemstone cradled in a wire vase. There was a spotlight that came from somewhere in the ceiling, reflecting the light off the gem and sending beams of light into mirrors. The mirrors were golden, a similar pattern to the pedestal on it. The mirror glass was red, too.

Dewey lit up at the sight of it. “Ooh!” He ran over to it. Louie quickly followed, hoping that his brother wouldn’t do anything too reckless. 

“Don’t touch it yet.” Now that he was closer, he was pretty sure those rubies were actually garnets. And was the truth gem a… red diamond? Louie was pretty sure those existed.

“Right, right.” Dewey kept his hands at his sides.

Louie scanned the room. Behind the jem was an open door, spikes at the top and a thin tripwire at the bottom.

“The doors rigged. Tripwire at the bottom.”

Dewey nodded. 

Louie looked at the rest of the room. If the door was rigged… 

He looked down and saw a rock. He picked it up and tossed it into one of the beams. It disintegrated. 

The boys stared at each other. “And to think that I was going to run through one of those.” Dewey muttered. “Should we just take the gem?”

Louie studied the room a bit more. “Crawl over to the other side. Don’t touch the gem.”

“Yessir.”

The boys carefully got to the other side. 

“What now?”

Louie thought for a second. “Uh… I’ll go stand on the other side of the tripwire.”

“Why?”

“Can you jump over a tripwire with a heavy gem?”

“We don’t know until we try.”

“We might only have one shot at this.”

Dewey was silent for a second. “Y’know, maybe it’s better you stand behind the tripwire.”

“Uh huh.” Louie walked away and approached the wire. He scanned the doorway and the hall. Nothing out of the ordinary, but he was still wary.

“You can nab it now!” Louie called over.

The moment Dewey took the gem off the platform, the mirrors cracked and Dewey ran, not bothering to look at the spirits that came out. They exchanged the gem and ran.

* * *

Dewey slammed the door shut behind them. Both boys relaxed when they saw the latch snap shut.

“That was…” Louie breathed. “Oh, that was terrifying.” He tried not to think about the ghosts that were slowly closing in on the boys. Had Dewey not pulled him into the small crevice… Louie really didn’t want to think about that.

“You good?” Dewey heaved. 

“Physically? Maybe. Mentally? Not at all.”

“Well, look on the brightside. We’re out.” 

Louie turned to where Dewey was gesturing. It was true. They were outside. The sun had just lowered under the horizon. 

Oh, they were so dead.

“Should I call Huey now?”

Dewey smoothed out his feathers. “Probably, yeah.” 

Louie pulled his phone out and eyed the battery. By some miracle, he still had about thirty percent left.

He noticed how many notifications he had and winced. 

Over two hundred.

Louie found his eldest brother's contact and sighed. He tapped it.

It only rang twice.

**“Louie?”**

“Hey, Hue.”

**“Where are you two?!”**

“Uh…” Louie took in his surroundings. “Not on the island, I can tell you that.”

**“Are there restaurants around you?”**

“There’s a coffee shop and a comic book store.”

**“...I think…”** The youngest could hear the rustling of a map. **“I think I know where you are. Is there a bus stop across from you?”**

“Next to.”

**“I know where you are. Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be there soon.”**

“ _You’ll_ be there? What about Mom and-?”

**“They went into the statue to find you guys! They haven’t come back out… but they’re fine! I just talked to Uncle Donald a while ago.”**

“Good, good…” Louie shook dust out of his feathers. “We got the truth crystal.”

**“You did?”**

“Heck yeah, we did!” Dewey suddenly glomped Louie, yelling into the phone.

“Almost got killed like fifty-thousand times, but yeah, we got it.”

**“I’m getting Launchpad to drive us over. We’ll be there in… well, a minute.”**

“Neat. See you then.”

Louie turned to see Dewey poking at the crystal. “I don’t think you should be doing that.”

“How does it work?”

“I dunno. Do I look like a nerd who wears a red hat and constantly researches about the supernatural?”

Dewey blinked at him. “You do, actually.”

“Shut up.”

Then the car pulled up. The door was quick to open, Huey practically flying out and capturing the boys in a hug. “I was so worried about you both! You didn’t even wait for us and then you never answered my calls. Are you both okay? What happened in there?” He grabbed Louie’s face. “Wait, why are there bruises on your face? Are those new? What happened? Who did that?” He grabbed at Dewey. “Where did these cuts come from? And these bruises? Wait, Louie do you have cuts too? You do! Oh, we need to get you both fixed up, right now.” He walked past them and lifted the crystal up. “Get in the car.”

Louie stuffed his hands into his pockets and wasted no time getting into the car. Dewey bounced in after him, swinging past him to the window side. Huey slid himself and the crystal into the car and shut the door behind him. “Launchpad, to the hotel.”

“Aye aye,” The car started moving.

“What about the others?”

“I’m calling Uncle Donald right now.” He brought his phone to his ear. “Hey- yeah, I know I called a little while ago, but I found them… yeah, yeah, they’re…” Red glanced over to his injured brothers. “Fine. We’re going to the hotel so I can check for any injuries. Will you be out soon? You don’t know?”

Louie leaned over to the phone. “What room are you in?”

**“We’re in a room with tiles. Della keeps messing the pattern up.”**

The boys heard a distant “I am not!” from the device. “Oh boy.” Louie snuggled his body into the seat. “They got about eleven more rooms to go.”

Huey frowned. “I’ll look after them. Just focus on getting out, okay? Yeah, yeah… love you too, Uncle Donald.” He set his phone down, then crossed his arms and faced his brothers. “Can you tell me what happened down there?”

“Well, it started out with a slide…”

* * *

“I can’t…” Huey flopped onto the bed. The boys had just finished telling their tales, all patched up. He looked up at Louie. “Louie…”

Said duckling pulled himself onto the bed. “If you’re going to give me a pep talk, don’t. Dewey already did.”

Huey’s expression didn’t change. “I just… I want you to know that I love you and I will never abandon you. I care about you and- and I don’t want you to ever feel like I hate you. I don’t. I never will.” 

Louie smiled up at him. “Yeah, I know.” He yawned.

Dewey hopped onto the bed. “Anyone up for sleep? I’m exhausted.”

“You’re acting like a ball of fire-”

Huey suddenly pulled him down so that they were laying. “No talk, just sleep.” 

Dewey joined them. “I wish we had stuffed animals.”

“Those neck pillows could be your best friends.”

Dewey stuck his tongue out. “I miss Mr. Radiostar.”

“Mr. Radiostar doesn’t miss you.” Louie mumbled, pulling the covers over him.

Dewey gasped dramatically. “And how would you know?”

“He told me.” He left Dewey to pout.

“What about Ms. Woofer?” Huey joined the conversation.

Louie thought for a moment. “Mm… she and Mr. Radiostar are having a party with all the other stuffies.”

“Even Whiskimittens?”

“Even Whiskimittens.”

“Still can’t believe that out of everything you could’ve picked for a dream, you chose a cat.” Huey shook his head. 

“Hey, being a cat is awesome. Next time Lena traps us in that dream world, you become a cat. You’ll see.”

“There won’t be a next time.”

“You never know. Anything’s possible.” Louie shut his eyes.

He felt Huey sit up. “Night, Lou-Lou.”

“Night.”

He didn’t have a nightmare that night. He did wonder about the rest of his family though. He hoped those spirits wouldn’t bother them. They weren’t the ones who stole the gem, after all. Clearly they got past the monster at the beginning… and the file cabinet riddles… and the color puzzle… and last time they checked, they were on the music one. Oh, how was the greatest fear one going to work for them? Dewey had to enter Louie’s to get him to snap out of it… Louie wondered what would’ve happened if Dewey wasn’t there… would he stay there until he died? The marks from when the fake Dewey pushed him were on his body. Would he have just… starved there? Probably.

He heard his brothers gently talking. He couldn’t care to listen to the exact things they were saying. He didn’t care.

He just wanted to sleep. 

So he did.

And if he woke up in a room full of people who weren’t there when he went to sleep, ate breakfast, then went right back to sleep, he’d never tell.

**Author's Note:**

> :)  
> yes the ending sucks i'm aware


End file.
